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Speaker 1: Ari Sarker, a pack president at MasterCard, joins us and

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Speaker 1: and Mr Sarka thanks very much for joining us. So

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Speaker 1: we do want to talk a little bit about the

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Speaker 1: fintech festivals that are ongoing, but I think we'll take

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Speaker 1: a broader look at first and and look at consumer spending.

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Speaker 1: A MasterCard is in such a unique position. Unlike a

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Speaker 1: lot of companies which have a lot of different factors

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Speaker 1: playing on them in different countries, yours is probably a

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Speaker 1: little bit more consistent. Where are you seeing some of

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Speaker 1: the most healthy consumer activity in the Asia Pacific? Well,

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Speaker 1: thank you, Brian, thank you really a pleasure to beatare

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Speaker 1: this morning with you. Um. I think the overall story

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Speaker 1: in Asia Pacific is that in the post COVID world,

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Speaker 1: things are the bounding actually fairly strongly. And I'll talk

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Speaker 1: to in terms of both domestic spending is going to

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Speaker 1: cross border. On the domestic spending front, I think clearly

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Speaker 1: consumers are getting out a lot more if you certain

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Speaker 1: categories like restaurants, entertainment and being able to you know,

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Speaker 1: basically be away from homes. Seeing a clear rebound and

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Speaker 1: that is also reflecting in in many corridors across Asia

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Speaker 1: which have now opened up for cross border travel, and

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Speaker 1: we're seeing that in a very aggressive cross border spending

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Speaker 1: that is increasing. Although I will admit that North Asia

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Speaker 1: is still kind of shut out. Japan Korea have been

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Speaker 1: more recent moves to open up. I would argue that

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Speaker 1: North Asia will reach will see the resurgence and cross

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Speaker 1: border possibly into first border of next year. But overall,

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Speaker 1: I think digitization is clearly seen a massive step up

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Speaker 1: e commerce. If you index to two thousand nineteen, you're

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Speaker 1: probably somewhere in the hundred and eight two thousand nineteen volumes.

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Speaker 1: If you look at our cross border travel, despite North

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Speaker 1: Asia being shut out, you're actually seeing a pretty a

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Speaker 1: rebound where we are very much act two thousand might

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Speaker 1: be spending levels. Now there is an equation element here

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Speaker 1: that is being built in. You know, with airline tickets

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Speaker 1: as we all know, as users of the service have

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Speaker 1: significantly gone up, and that's more a demand versus supply

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Speaker 1: capacity constraints. I think capacity is coming in aggressively in

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Speaker 1: the airline space into first quarter, so you'll see some

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Speaker 1: level of settling down as far as unit pricing is concerned.

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Speaker 1: But overall, I think it's still a very positive story.

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Speaker 1: Uh dare I say the drum and groom little bit

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Speaker 1: coming out of Europe, it's not what we're seeing here

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Speaker 1: and Asia Pacific. You know, consumer is strong, Spending levels

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Speaker 1: remain high. Individual or consumer balance sheets are fairly clean.

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Speaker 1: There are some concerns with a little bit of the

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Speaker 1: interstrates moving up, but nothing that today tells us is

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Speaker 1: not manageable the visibility that one has. So we're looking

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Speaker 1: for a good two thousand twenty three, all right, certainly

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Speaker 1: is revenge spending having an and revenge travel too. You

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Speaker 1: are at the Fintech festival though here in Singapore. Tell

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Speaker 1: us about the movement forward and some of the movement

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Speaker 1: that we're seeing in central bank digital currencies, how that

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Speaker 1: plays into master cards or outlook. You know, I think

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Speaker 1: there is a host of central banks that are looking

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Speaker 1: at the central banking build pubsies and I think we are.

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Speaker 1: We're seeing this is a development which is only gaining momentum.

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Speaker 1: Some have started to release certain cd dcs which are

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Speaker 1: moving into what I call pilot stage testing stage. But

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Speaker 1: you know, needless to say, this is something that's going

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Speaker 1: to gain for the momentum. I think for us we

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Speaker 1: really see this as a development that will further thick

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Speaker 1: ugalization and many of the economies and possibly drive deeper inclusion. Um,

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Speaker 1: what is very clear the cd d c s will

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Speaker 1: have a very profound impact in cross border trade flows,

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Speaker 1: which today is fraught with you know what I call

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Speaker 1: the black hole of when money most from point day

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Speaker 1: to point B until it doesn't show up at the

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Speaker 1: other end, which could be five to six days. You

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Speaker 1: really don't know where it is and what the fee

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Speaker 1: structures are. I really feel cbbcs will have a massive,

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Speaker 1: massive efficiency drive as far as cross border trade flows

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Speaker 1: are concerned. Whether you pay with a CBDC at a Starbucks,

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Speaker 1: I don't know. Is it a solution? Is it? Is

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Speaker 1: it a solution looking for a problem. As far as

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Speaker 1: retail payments are concerned, time will tell because there's enough

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Speaker 1: choice today. As far as retail payments in the domestic

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Speaker 1: market is concerned, and therefore we just have to see

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Speaker 1: how how central banks and others end up using it.

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Speaker 1: But clearly, uh, you know, in wholesale trades there's a

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Speaker 1: massive application that's going to have for CBDCs. Let me

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Speaker 1: ask you an oddball question. Um, you're the a pack

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Speaker 1: president at MasterCard. You could have either gone to the

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Speaker 1: Singapore Fintech Festival or the Hong Kong one. Why do

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Speaker 1: you pick Singapore? Well, for for fore Briant, it's it's

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Speaker 1: a lot easier to get get and out of Singapore.

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Speaker 1: I think Hong Kong's just about opening, true, and I

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Speaker 1: think that there's still an element of concern that you

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Speaker 1: may go in, but can you leave. I think those

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Speaker 1: are the real concerns that I think consistency and policy

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Speaker 1: and and and being able to have what I call

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Speaker 1: sustained ability to build confidence. I think it's going to

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Speaker 1: be very critical in the post COVID world, and I

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Speaker 1: think Singapore shines on that front. Right, They've really taken

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Speaker 1: on the challenge in the post COVID world. Uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: they're not working towards the zero COVID policy. COVID is

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Speaker 1: now pretty much endemic. You know, we're not worried about

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Speaker 1: this as much as as China is. And I think

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Speaker 1: that is going to build a lot more confidence of

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Speaker 1: people to move around and they know that they can

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Speaker 1: come in and leave without having the uncertainty of what

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Speaker 1: the future might call. And it's just better, isn't it. No?

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Speaker 1: I'm kidding I' kidding. I'm not going to get you

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Speaker 1: into that argument between Hong Kong and Singapore, are we

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Speaker 1: thank you so much for your time, Arisanka Apach, President

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Speaker 1: at MasterCard, with us from the Singapore Fintech Festival.